MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS just misses genuine classic status despite the ministrations of some of the best in the studio system - a screwball comedy which remains a little too sane for too much of the time - and the problems are essentially at the undeniably entertaining top.
John Lund, making his first real impact in Hollywood, came to the task with solid Broadway training from Shakespeare (an AS YOU LIKE IT in 1941) to musicals (a NEW FACES revue as writer and performer! and the Fatts Waller hit EARLY TO BED in 1943) to the play which made him a star, THE HASTY HEART (in 1945). Unfortunately, Hollywood never quite knew how to take advantage of this wealth of talents packaged in a slightly bland handsome face. When they got around to filming THE HASTY HEART in 1949, Ronald Reagan was in Lund's role while Lund was stuck in another "wacky" comedy, MY FRIEND IRMA.
Here, made up to look like Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY, he is directed to give a version of the persona Jerry Lewis would torture a generation of film goers with when he got to Hollywood in the "crazy" half of Lund's dual role of a Hollywood stuntman hired to impersonate a missing heir only to fall in love with his "sister."
The titular "Miss Matlock" is another studio near miss, Wanda Hendrix who, after a dozen so-so films would become a television regular, but here gives a very pleasant impersonation of Jean Arthur. Her grasping relatives are trying to foist her off on a somewhat slimy cousin (an almost too pleasantly suave Robert Stack) while Lund, playing the "emotionally challenged" brother who has actually inherited her millions, longs for her.
Where the film absolutely shines however is in the solid studio line up of supporting players who consistently spin gold out of dross. From Barry Fitzgerald as Lund's slightly larcenous "keeper" to Monty Wolly as a fully larcenous uncle, Ilka Chase, Dorothy Stickney, Leif Erickson, Dan Tobin and actor/director Richard Haydn (the first of three directoral efforts - it was not his greatest strength), the solid comedic underpinnings of the film very nearly make up for any other weaknesses of style.
Still there IS that style. Charles Brackett (midway in a 35 year career that included such genuine screen writing classics as NINOTCHKA and SUNSET BOULEVARD) and his frequent collaborator Richard Breen, just starting his, with the unbilled input of the cream of the studio contract writers - all "names" today - turned Jacques Deval's Broadway flop OH, BROTHER! (23 performances at the Royale Theatre, June 19-July 7,1945) into something almost unrecognizable - bigger and probably better - but the great cinematographer Charles Lang (17 nominations and one Oscar for A FAREWELL TO ARMS) makes the film (at least in the excellent print seen) look more like the 1945 AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (a classic Agatha Christie mystery) than a bright, crisp screwball comedy - an impression not diminished by the presence of Fitzgerald and Haydn in both films.
It IS definitely a film to seek out and enjoy. It may be slight and not as funny as the studio promotion (which tried to paint it as "'Funnier than Bergan in long underwear' -Charley MacCarthy") would have liked (until the last 10 minutes, which are everything a screwball fancier could wish!), but it is charming and consistently entertaining. Not a classic, but a lot of diverting fun.
John Lund, making his first real impact in Hollywood, came to the task with solid Broadway training from Shakespeare (an AS YOU LIKE IT in 1941) to musicals (a NEW FACES revue as writer and performer! and the Fatts Waller hit EARLY TO BED in 1943) to the play which made him a star, THE HASTY HEART (in 1945). Unfortunately, Hollywood never quite knew how to take advantage of this wealth of talents packaged in a slightly bland handsome face. When they got around to filming THE HASTY HEART in 1949, Ronald Reagan was in Lund's role while Lund was stuck in another "wacky" comedy, MY FRIEND IRMA.
Here, made up to look like Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY, he is directed to give a version of the persona Jerry Lewis would torture a generation of film goers with when he got to Hollywood in the "crazy" half of Lund's dual role of a Hollywood stuntman hired to impersonate a missing heir only to fall in love with his "sister."
The titular "Miss Matlock" is another studio near miss, Wanda Hendrix who, after a dozen so-so films would become a television regular, but here gives a very pleasant impersonation of Jean Arthur. Her grasping relatives are trying to foist her off on a somewhat slimy cousin (an almost too pleasantly suave Robert Stack) while Lund, playing the "emotionally challenged" brother who has actually inherited her millions, longs for her.
Where the film absolutely shines however is in the solid studio line up of supporting players who consistently spin gold out of dross. From Barry Fitzgerald as Lund's slightly larcenous "keeper" to Monty Wolly as a fully larcenous uncle, Ilka Chase, Dorothy Stickney, Leif Erickson, Dan Tobin and actor/director Richard Haydn (the first of three directoral efforts - it was not his greatest strength), the solid comedic underpinnings of the film very nearly make up for any other weaknesses of style.
Still there IS that style. Charles Brackett (midway in a 35 year career that included such genuine screen writing classics as NINOTCHKA and SUNSET BOULEVARD) and his frequent collaborator Richard Breen, just starting his, with the unbilled input of the cream of the studio contract writers - all "names" today - turned Jacques Deval's Broadway flop OH, BROTHER! (23 performances at the Royale Theatre, June 19-July 7,1945) into something almost unrecognizable - bigger and probably better - but the great cinematographer Charles Lang (17 nominations and one Oscar for A FAREWELL TO ARMS) makes the film (at least in the excellent print seen) look more like the 1945 AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (a classic Agatha Christie mystery) than a bright, crisp screwball comedy - an impression not diminished by the presence of Fitzgerald and Haydn in both films.
It IS definitely a film to seek out and enjoy. It may be slight and not as funny as the studio promotion (which tried to paint it as "'Funnier than Bergan in long underwear' -Charley MacCarthy") would have liked (until the last 10 minutes, which are everything a screwball fancier could wish!), but it is charming and consistently entertaining. Not a classic, but a lot of diverting fun.